Weighted aerial game piece



' May 22, 1951 H, F, ROTHE 2,553,943

WEIGHTED AERIAL GAME PIECE Filed July 29, 1946 INVENTOR. flu go E R0 the.

Patented May 22, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WEIGHTED AERIAL GAME PIECE Hugo F. Rothe, Lincoln Park, Mich. Application July 29, 1946,.Serial No. 686,859

This invention relates to an improved game piece especially designed for use in playing a game such as disclosed in my Patent No. 2,417,615, granted March 18,1947.

In my prior patent I disclosed a game piece comprising a trumpet shape body of round or polygonal cross sectional contour adapted to seat in perforations of a game board when propelled over the surface of the board by striking the game piece with a mallet. These game pieces were shown as having solid rigid walls and in practice it has been found a game piece of this construction is not entirely satisfactory for the reason the game piece will sometimes land on its side or upside down and therefore will not seat in the perforations of the game board as intended. This objectional feature detracts from the interest of the game and it is the primary object of the present invention to provide a game piece which will at all times seat in the perforations of the game board.

' The purpose of the present invention is to construct a game piece having a flexible body which is readily invertible so that when falling upon the game board the body will assume the shape necessary to' insure seating of the game piece in one of the perforations. This is accomplished by suspending a weight from a ring by flexible walls which are readily reversible so the weight may depend from either side of the ring. The flexibility of the walls is such that in flight the game piece will automatically assume a position perpendicular to the plane of the game board when falling thereon, thus insuring it being seated in one of the perforations. As designed the game piece is durable in construc- 7 Claims. (01. 273-106) piece, showing in dotted lines the walls weight in-inverted position,

Fig. 6 is a cross section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 2, showing the detail construction, and,

Fig. '7 is across section on line 1'l of Fig. 3 showing the manner in which the game piece seats in the perforation of the game board. a

In the drawing wherein for the purpose of illustration a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown, the numeral 5 denotes generally a game piece constructed in accordance with my present invention. The game piece is composed of three essential parts; a ring 6, flex-'- ible wall 1, and weight 8. The ring 6 is made from any suitable material such as metal or plastic and may be circular or polygonal contour, as clearly shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4. As explained in my prior application it is proposed to provide sets of the game pieces some of which are round and others of different polygonal contour, although if desired, a set of pieces of the and same contour may be provided and it is not intion, highly efficient in performing its function v and may be manufactured at a low cost.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent during the course of the following description.

In the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification and in which like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the same.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the material forming the body of the game piece,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a game piece made in accordance with my invention,

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of a game piece of different polygonal contour from that shown in Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of a game piece of round contour,

F g. 5 is a side elevational view of a game e and the other half on the opposite side.

tended to limit the invention to a game piece of any particular contour. The flexible wall 1 is formed from a sheet of flexible material 9 which may be thin latex, vinyl or silk cloth or other suitable material having the necessary degree of flexibility. The sheet of flexible material is cut to conform in shape to the contour of the ring to which it is to be attached, as shown in Fig. 1. The center of the sheet is provided with an aperture H1 and extending from each angle of the sheet towards the center are radial slots or slits H which terminate in spaced relation to the aperture ID. The number of slots corresponds to the number of angles of the sheet so as to provide a plurality of separate wall sections I 2, one for each side of the polygonal shaped ring. When constructed for a round ring, such as shown in Fig. 4, the number of slots will vary to provide the number of wall sections found most suitable to give the desired degree of flexibility. Attached to the center of the sheet 9 is the ball weight 8. The ball is formed in sections with one half on one side of the sheet The sections of the ball are molded integral with the sheet, as shown in Fig. 6, or may be attached by passing a rivet I3 through the center, as shown in Fig. 7. The free ends of the wall sections [2 may be molded integral with the ring or secured between the turned over edges by clinching as indicated at M in Figs. 6 and '7. When the ring, flexible sheet and weight are assembled, the weight will hang down below the ring stretching the wall sections of the flexible sheet to form a body of Substantially conical shape. The ring 6 is of such size as to rest on the marginal edges of the apertures in the mesh material 15 forming the surface of the game board and as the weight 8 is relatively smaller than the apertures it will freely pass through the aperture and is suspended from the ring by the flexible wall sections.

In use, when the weighted end of the game piece is struck by a mallet it will be propelled upwardly through the air. If during its flight the ring becomes inverted, the weight due to the flexible walls will be permitted to. assume an in: verted position by passing through the ring as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5. Thus, it is seen no matter What course the game piece takes in its flight through the air it will automatically assume a shape to insure it being seated in one of the apertures upon'falling upon the game board.

It is to be understood the form of the invention shown in the drawing is a preferred example of the same and changes in the shape, size and arrangement of the parts may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. An aerial projectile for perforated game boards comprising an annulus, a weight of less diameter than the inner diameter ofsaid annulus, and a series of flexible strips connecting said weight to said annulus whereby said weight is suspended from either side of said annulus.

2;. An aerial projectile for perforated game boards comprising an annulus, a conical shape body of flexible material attached at its base to said annulus, and a weight of less width than the inner diameter. of said annulus attached to the apex of said body.

3. An aerial projectile for perforated game boards comprising a conical shape body of flexible material, an annulus at the base of said body and projecting laterally therefrom, and a weight of less width than the inner diameter of said annulus attached to the apex of said body.

4. An aerial projectile for perforated game boards comprising a conical shape body of flex- 4 ible material, the walls of said body having spaced longitudinal slits, an annulus at the base of said body, and a weight of less diameter than the inner diameter of said annulus attached to the apex of said body.

5. An aerial projectile for perforated game boards comprising an annulus, a series of flexible strips attached at one end to the inner perimeter of said annulus and a weight of less Width than the inner diameter of said annulus attached to the free ends of said strips adapted to be suspended from either side of said annulus.

6. An aerial projectile for perforated game boards comprising a conical shape body of flexible material having an annulus at its base for suspending said body from a perforation of the game board, and a weight at the apex of said body of less diameter than the inner diameter of the annulus capable of inverting the body when in flight.

7. An aerial projectile for perforated game boards comprising an annulus, a flex-ible invertible conical shape body attached at its base to said annulus, and a Weight at the apex of said body with a portion inside and a portion outside the body for inverting the body when the pro jectile is in flight.

HUGOv F. ROTI-IE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in. the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 488,762 Gist Dec. 27, 1892 1,005,266 Meeks Oct. 10, 1911 1,101,847 Haase June 30, 1914 1,123,429 Trieber Jan. 5, 1915 1,154,865 Jaeger Sept. 28, 1915 1,381,466 Jackson June 14, 1921 1,508,147 Vinal Sept. 9, 1924 2,053,635 Sandeberg Sept. 8, 1936 2,218,593 Ushakofi Oct. 22', 1940 2,247,486 Emerson July 1, 1941 2,417,615 Rothe Mar. 18, 1947 

